The evening world. Newspaper, March 6, 1911, Page 17

\ i +] The By Gaston The Romance of a “Spirit’’ That Haunted the Paris Opera-House; Spreading Terror, Working Miracles and Making Ghostly Love. A Story That One ' Cannot Put Down Unfinished. & 1011, by the Bobbe-Merri!! Compary,) CHAPTER I. Is It the Ghost? T was the evening on which MM, Deblenne and Poligny, the managers of the Opera, were giving @ last gala performance to mark their retire- ment. Suddenly the dressing-room of La Sorell!, one of the princtpal dancers, was invaded by half @ dozen young ladies of the ballet, who ad come up from the stage after “dancing” Polyeucte. They rushed in amid great confusion, some giving ‘vent to forced and unnatural Jaughter, others to cries of terror. Sore!!l, who wished to be alone for a moment to “run through” the speech | whieh ehe was to make to the resigning managers, looked around angrily at the | mad and tumultuous crowd, It was little Jammes—the girl with the tip-tilted nose, the forget-me-not eyes, the rose-red cheeks and the lily-white neck and shoulders —who gave ‘he cxplanation In a trembling voice: “It's the ghost!” And ehe locked the door, Borelll was very superstitious. She shuddered when she heard little Jammes epeak of tie gost, called her a “silly | heads, which the changed about as he (Copyright, . ; i he| Pleased. And, of course, they at once and then, as she was the! PI . » they at o ee xoneral, | !Masined that they were In the greatest first to believe in gio! *| danger. Once a fireman did not hesitate and the Opera ghost in particular, @t! to faint, leaders and once asked for details back-row girls alike use for the fright “Have you seen b ears “As plainly as I see you now!" date are Mttle Jammes, whore legs were giving | Sorelli he way beneath her, and she dropped with | @ moan Into a chatr. Thereupon little G eyes black as slices, hair black a swarthy complexion and a poor little skin stretched over poor little bones Uttle Giry added: “If that's the ghost, he's very ugly!" “Oh, yes!" eried the chorus of ballet girls. And they all began to talk together. The ghost had appeared to them In the front-row and | had plenty of ex- | that made them 1 passing some corridor. m sald on the fir oh te ers box, which every | red thy oper otherwise oh hefore tread of the ye was not in- any more than any other part of this story, alas!—and may still be seen on the table in tie passage out- stare doo: when vier the @ the Com To return to the evening in question. | “I's the ghos Jammes had} man, tatie in front of the Placed a | ry-the girl with in) setting foot on the vis hor (Author of “The Mystery of the Yellow Room, Leroux, Picked him up. He was covered with bruises and his face was all over blood, We were frightened out of our lives, Dut all at once he began to thank Prov- idence that he had got off so cheaply. ee he toll us what had frightened m. He had sean the ghost behind th jan, the ghost with the death's head, just like Joseph Buquet's descrip. tion!" Jammes had told her story ever so quickly, as though the ghost were at her heels, and w: uite out of breath at the finish. A followed, while | Soreill polished her nails in great ex-| cltement. It waa broken by little Giry, | who said: | foseph Buquet would do better to! hold his tongue." ‘ | Why enould he hold his tongue?” ed somebody, | “That's mother’s opinion," _repited | Meg, lowering her voice and looking all | about as though fearing lest other ea than those present might overhear, d why ds It your mother's opin- to} “Hush! Mother says the ghost doesn't Uke being talked abou “And why does your mother say 07” “Because—because—noth tg — This reticence exasperated the curios. ity of the young ladies, who crowde around little G begging her to ex- plain herself. y were there, side by side, leaning forward simultaneously in one movement of entreaty and fear communicating thetr terror to one an other, taking a keen pleasure in feeling their blood freeze in their veins. “I swore not to tell!” gasped Meg. But they left her no peace and prom- tsed to keep the secret unt!l Meg, burn- ing to say all she knew, be; with her eyes fixed on the door: “Well, It's because ofythe private box. “What private box pitty Fev} Shape of a «ent an in cloth j cried. i r who had suddenly stood before them fu; An agonizing silence now retened in iT a ‘ knowtn Nothing w heard the pass without their kn oct wes heard where he © from, He seemed to aig Ob te aR Ae AYO: 60) furthest the wall, with every “Pooh!” said one of them, mark of real te on her face, whis- more or less kept her head. the ghost everywhere! And it was ¢ For several there had been issed a Opera but this ghost tn dress who stalked about the build pered: ) Listen!" ly seemed to hear a rustily no 80} There wa It was like Meht ing over the panel. Then !t I tried to show more pl. top to bottom, Hike a shadow, who sp the others, She went up to the door and , and orders have been given at to nobody, to whom nobody dared speak \in a quavering volce, asked |the ox office that It must mever be and who vanished as soon as he was “Who's there?" | soa." seen, no one knowing how or wher Hut nodady answered. Then fealing all | 11 does the ghost really come ‘ecame p real ghost, he made no '¢ves upon her, watching her last moves | there? 2 ibe d sald very loudly body does comet" People began by laughing and manin Is there any one behind the door ghost comes, but fun of this specter dressed like a man h, Sea, veal Of course. chore {8 fashion or an undertaker; but the gho that Ht um of a Meg 1 girls exchangi legend soon swelled to enormous pro- neroically Soretit back by et came to the box tions among the corps de ballet. All her eauze skirt ate you do ¢ yocause he wore a i 1 to have met this @on't open the door! Oh, Lord, don't death's head, This the girls pretend supernatural being more or less often. And those who laughed the loudest were open the door!" it Sorelll, anne® with a dagger that left her, turned the and not the most at ease, When he did hack the door, while the not show himself, he betrayed his pi treated to whe tnner dres ence or hiw passing by accid 1c) Meg Giry sighed: or serious, for which the general su- o perstition held him responsiole t Mother othe yrel!l looked inte the passage bravely. Had any one met with a fall, or suf-!1¢ was emp’ flame, in s| fered a practical joke at the hands of! prison, cast and suspicious light one of the other girls, or lost a powder. | {nto the surrounding darkness, with puff, it was at once the fault of the| succeeding in dispefling tt the slammed the door again, with a she said, host, of the Opera ghost. {aan After a’ who had seen him? You | d meet so many men tn dress-clothes at “there ts no one the Opera who are not giota But . , this dress-suit had @ pecullarity of its! {, we saw him!" Jammes declared, own. It covered a skeleton, At least, !returniny witht little steps to her “He must be some- 60 the ballet-girls sald. And, of dourse, | place T shan't go hack it had a death's head, whe Was all this us? ‘The truth ts| to 1 go.down to] ‘that the of the skeleton came from | th at once for the} the de: on of the ghost given hy will come up again Joseph Buquet, the eatof scene-khif er, who had really seen the ghost, He had the chil ned the run up against the ghost on the little ral fin je wore staircase, ts, Which lends | 4 w to the “ce! had seen him f ° &@ wecond vet had fled—and to {PEK reht tha vi e a An- | any one who cared to listen to him he | drew es an t ring whish sald: “Ifo ts extraordir thin and his Aress-coat ha n frame. ' Hts eyes are a0 deep that you can hardly fen the fixed puplla Dig black holes, as in a dead man's sk Hie skin, which is strete ed You just dee bones like a drumbead, {s not white, bu 1 he appeared to J A nasty yellow, His nose (8 so little | ad Gabriel sa worth talking about that you can't sco | ‘ It slde-ta sence of t 1 the hair he lai dark locks on hi In ears.” ‘girls in chor * pointin a brave fel- thing, lew of all fire’ man im au m, Who had a round of inspection in ho, ns, ad ve of and t 1 the collars, and who, ent the Parrian denly J € Way, Gi \ ; soaret Vr v hee + ng out of his he fainted in the arms Ld pari. 1f ne ema 9 Hucrying to he ti 0 penged his foreland level 8 head And Reve bimieels % attac 4 auddeniy slopy Teatd, a fireman ts fon tho screen To s nome was tol nls flery shed out of ottice Like at head in no way corre mied with Jo- | n, slipped on the stal se and mn seph Buguet's de mm of the ghost, | down the whole of the first flight on his But the young ladies soon persuaded back. themselves that the mhoet bet coos) UT was fost passing with mother Ww The corps de balle consternation. At f sight “The ghost's box!" “Has the ghost a box? On, 4o tell us, ust"? ot #0 loud sald Meg. Five, you know, the box on the gran tler, next to the stage box, on the left. “Oh, nonsense '* I tell you !t ts, Mother has charge But you swear you won't say a “It's Box ‘Of course, of course." Well, that's the ghost's box, No one had it for over a month except the ed it! The ghost ts r no dress coat and no he 1he All that talk about his death's head a his head of fire is nonsense! Th nothing in You only hear him when} he is tn the box, M has never seen | him, but has } im. Motuer | knows, 1 gramme Sorell! interfered, “Giry, child, you're getting at us!” | Thereupon little Giry began to ery. “IT ought to have held my tongue—it} use sie gives him his pros) [Babbling Bess erent 7 Lge \ |The Phantom of the O mother ever came to know! quite right, Joseph Buquet had no busl- to talk of things that don't con cern him—it will bring him bad luck— mother was saying so last night" — There was a sound of hurried and heavy footsteps in the passage and « breathless voice orled: ‘ecile! Ce: lady srenadier, burst into and Cropped groaning into a arm chalr, her brick-dust “How awful tu ‘What? What? ‘ Ph Buquet*- Vhat about him? “Joseph Buquet ts dead!” ‘The room became filled with exclama- astonished soared requests for explanations. was found hanging in the dloor cellar! the ghost! ttons, with “Yes, he pera ‘ t'q mother's votce,"* said Jammes. hat's the matter e@ opened the door, dutlt on tho lines of a Pomerania vacant Her eyes rolled madly in colored face. eahe sald, ‘ttow aw-| 4 oo a3 Sn But I was ! Are you there? A respectable he dressing-room how Joseph Buquet mot his death, The verdict at the inquest was natural] t Suicide.” In his “Memoirs of a Man: ger,” Moncharmin, one of the joint managers who succeeded MM. Deblenne outeries, with Uttle Giry blurted, Igny, deserlbes the Incident as in spite of herself; but she srected herself, with her grevious accident spoiled the ttle han “9 her mouth: no!—| arty w 1 MM. Det a Polleny T dicn't sag uel didn't say tt!"— to celobr nt, All around her, ner pante-stricken | N a companions repeated under their} \j.¢ breaths: told “Yes—4t must be the ghost!" had been Sorell was very pale, “I shall never be able to recite my speech,” sho sala, @ave her opinion, wh emptied a glass of liquor that hap-| sta pened to be standing on a table Ma damm shi JOHN. OU GO OVER. | THERE and Get A \ SAMPLE Box UF THAT), SFyNew BReAK FAST AS |FOOD BND THEN NO Ves SE Bye PN Liwoner hve 'o) 5 1yé something to do with lar under t se and @ s& T shoute Come and cut tim down!’ By the time T had aircase and Jacob's ladder, the the] may was no longer hanging from his rome!" So th that no one ever knew) aii a farm- 1s an event whtch M, Monch snatural, A man henge at t 1 There you aret t scuttiing ¢ t oa a Listen to him was eaders an Just a danet r the ballet; rls lost no ¢ Pieture the wnt suleide n, on the ot k of the exact spot where the b fo de La-| was discovered--the |neath t ad down the! that the rope disappen third T tmagin 1 inte stage after tt it I am wrong. Tho horrid ne the Opera, where J "8 soon spread & end of a rope; they go to cut him dawn, ‘ope has disapp charmin f tiont Oh, M. Mon und a very simple explana- and » taking thele precautions against the evil eye.” had effected tts purpose; and tine will show | 1 over |! oph Buquet was |" * By Harry Palmer hing Co, (The New York Worl), )| LGOT MINE! )) Sow You Go T ONE TLL WAIT HERE, WE DON'T warner TO BE SEEN; famine, PAPA Gor \ONE. AND HE SAID HE'D wart over THERE WHILE - You Gor ONE! ) where ARE WE GOIN! T DIDN'T co '\Tt | | AGAIN: | = ' [ DO NOTHIN, But I Wonr d | | HAVE You } th /EVER Hao {B Pacensey om [Perone } 3 ~ i 35 ai ONE yy, [PACKAGE Sp tH EACH i FAMILY A eal ei ay | yund Soretit ike an fast as th TR 11, The New Margarita. had sing-room, A few % protested, Why had so great a treasure been kept from r 1 and stair r played a tp tle pink me « of ae rathe too er material Margarita. And tt dn ta's Incomprehenstbdle nee from this gala at & moment's nat she could do | gram reserved for { hat the sub- why had to Dane, Did they And, !f they they kept jt hidden? t hidden? Oddly r known to have a {p tat moment. She practise le thing hia box, etened standing wp to all this frensy loudly applaud- Marle Comte de just forty-one years of uristocrat and a& 6 height spite er cold the nve mid feature whose f 1 t t th ee 1 ut deat + the ed at Raoul a taste \ tratning- honors nnd the influens or 4 the t to the the surviv- of whom ree years, he 16 a tong tur or gl a of dowage ~Germain w te stinpling for nd apparently the bard work store for din, . (To de Continued.) ihe arm, to be